all-in-one device which "fax over modem" and ISDN connection

Question

I want to be able to send faxes using a certain all-in-one device, which has functionality to send them using a modem.

It means the device doesn't have fax itself, but it scans the PC for a modem to connect with and send. The device is connected to the computer with USB.

I have ISDN and DSL provider. There's a box with these connections : AMT (being used by the phone), DSL, a connection which goes to a switch (internet) and 2 ISDN connections, which aren't being used.

So, what do I have to do to send faxes? Do I need to buy a modem, if yes connect it with what and how? Or maybe the devices I already have are enough and just need certain connections and configuration?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Long long ago, modem meant voice-modems, which were used for data communications, including Internet access. These modems connected to a plain old telephone line (POTS) and used the voice bandwidth to transmit data. Later ones conformed to standards such as V.92 or were described as 56K modems.

Early voice-modems were connected to computers by RS-232 serial cables. Later ones were typically on plug-in cards (e.g. PCI) and used the computer's CPU to do a lot of the work. Current ones are often USB attached.

All these voice modems have an RJ11 socket for connection to a phone line.

Several of these voice-modems were also Fax-modems in that they also supported the protocols used by fax machines. Software on the PC would be used to send or receive faxes.

The word modem is nowadays probably more associated with ADSL-modems. However these don't do Fax. They don't use voice bandwidth (which is why you can still make voice-calls on a ADSL-enabled phone line)

So yes, if you want to go down this route you probably need to buy a voice modem that can be detected by the device driver or associated software for your your all-in-one (or all-but-one-in-one) device.